Dave Owens meets the headmaster of his daughter's new school and looks back on his own, less fortunate, schooldays

But there we were, my wife and I, plonked outside a door emblazoned with the word HEADMASTER waiting for an appointment with the school chief, while feeling a mixture of fear and trepidation.

Although we hadn’t done anything wrong, old feelings obviously die-hard.

Not that I was the mischievous sort prone to going on the mitch (as playing truant was called in my day) I was always quite the diligent, hard-working sort whose lack of natural ability was supplemented by steel and industry.

We were at the school as we had been invited to meet the headmaster and the teacher who will be Elinor’s guiding hand when she starts primary school in September.

When that epochal moment arrives it will signify a day of tears for all of us. It will also be affirmation that my little girl has grown up fast and is no longer the little babe in arms she seemed only months ago.

Time travels fast when you have children. It’s one of the crueller twists of the shared experience of looking after a little one.

Still, to soften the blow and to leaven our anxiety there was gentle reassurance and no little anticipation from both headmaster and teacher.

Much of their collective enthusiasm derived from the fact that come autumn-time Elinor will be safely ensconced in a brand new school.

This state-of-the-art facility is currently being built opposite her present nursery and a stones-throw away from our house, so handily she’s been able to witness the construction of her new school (or “see the Bob The Builders” as she quaintly describes it) on a daily basis.

This has not only allowed her own excitement to bubble away to boiling point but it will hopefully make it easier come day one of her new life in education.

And it sounds like she has a treat in store.

As with this generation of children who will grow up firmly embedded in the digital age there will be many concessions to technological advancement – not least a multimedia studio complete with touchscreens and the latest gadgets to enthral the little ones. There will also be a kitchen for the kids to make their own food, situated next to a bigger version where they can watch the cooks at work and an allotment for the children to grow their own produce.

No wonder then that both headmaster and teacher were understandably effusive about their new location come September.

And without this column descending into a Monty Python sketch about going to school in a hole in the road and being too poor to afford a pencil, all I could do was admire how far education has come since I was a child.

On my first day at school I distinctly remember playing with a plastic car complete with moulded wheels – that didn’t turn.

Kids today, as the well-worn cliché goes, don’t know how lucky they are.

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.